STANLEY J5C09 Jump Starter 1000A

This jumpstarter is absolutely amazing. I mean it. My car has had it's battery die on many occasions, due to a variety of circumstances. I have never had a problem with it in it's extensive use. Trust me, this thing takes a lot of abuse from me. It sits in my trunk 100% of the time, unsecured, in freezing cold temperatures, bounces around, and gets very frequent use (anywhere from daily use to once or twice a month). I bought it on November 6th 2014, and at the time of writing it is Febuary 2nd 2015. I haven't had it for long, but I have definitely used it more than anyone should have to use one of these. And it still works just fine. The cables and alligator clips seem very sturdy, as well as the materials used for the casing, handle, and various switches. It is very reliable. I would wager that it is more reliable than my car's actual, brand new (November 2014) battery. Now that we have it's sturdiness aside, I'm going to talk about it's performance as a jump-starter. Yes, it does come with some fancy frills, but let's be honest. None of those matter if it doesn't do it's intended job. However, that's not an issue at all, because it DOES do it's job, and it does it very well. My car is a 1988 Mazda RX-7. These have a lot of electrical problems, due to Mazda's poor soldering and 27 years of corrosion on the grounding points. My battery will every once in a while drain for some unknown cause, it leaves a circuit closed after turning it off or something. Even when the battery is 100% dead like this, this jumpstarter can crank out enough power to turn it on. If you try to turn the car on very quickly after connecting it (less than 10 seconds), it might not turn the motor over very quickly. However, if you wait just a few seconds, it cranks it over just as well as a fully charged battery. Basically, when the battery is 100% dead, it takes a couple seconds to build up some juice. Which is fine. Another thing, my car has a strange engine that is drastically different from any other car's engine (it has a rotary engine). These take a LOT of power to crank over. This jumpstarter is more than capable of turning it over. In the winter, it is a common phenomenon that the rotary engines have trouble starting even with their own factory battery, fully charged. They thick oil they use compounded with the high power necessary to start them renders them sometimes useless in the cold. In the winter, if the car doesn't want to start, I just pull this out, connect it, and it'll start faster than ever. It gives a significant boost to the battery, and lets the car start much faster than usual in conditions when it would normally not even start at all. Next, let's talk about charging, battery life, etc. It does not take long to charge at all. There are two ways to charge it, you can use a 12V DC "cigarette lighter" plug (included) and charge it in the car, and it also has an AC plug that you attach an extension cord (not included) to charge from a wall socket. I haven't used the car plug, I have only used an extension cord. It usually has a "green light" in a few hours or less. Granted, I have never fully drained it, I've come down to the first LED out of the 3 that indicate the charge level). This leads into another great thing about it. It can take a lot of use before it needs to be charged. I have had it for 3 months now, and I have charged it about 3 times. This may seem like a lot, but remember, I use it very, very frequently. I haven't actually counted how many times I can use it before I have to charge it. However, when it's very cold out, I use it almost every time I start the car. This shouldn't count as a "full jump" though, because my car battery is actually fully charged. I'd count it as a "partial jump" because it IS using power from the jump starter. It gives enough "extra power" to get the motor started. Doing this, I have never actually had the indicator drop below the green "fully charged" level (or whichever it was currently at). As for completely dead jumps, I tend to mix those in with the "partial jumps". I can't give exclusive data on that, because as is the case with jump starting, it occurs unexpectedly. However, I can definitely perform multiple completely dead jumps on a single charge. Sometimes a full jump won't even take it below the "fully charged" green LED indicator. Sometimes, it will drop down to the 2/3 level. If I had to take a guess, I'd say the jump starter would be able to jump my car (with a completely dead battery) reliably 3-5 times in a row before it can't do it anymore. Maybe even a bit more, if the car battery is not 100% dead, but doesn't have enough juice to either start the car or even turn it over. I have also used it extensively to turn the motor over without the goal of starting the car. Sometimes my car has problems that require turning the engine over without actually starting the car. If you're familiar with cars, I have to take out the spark plugs or fuel pump fuse and crank the engine over. When doing this, if I turn the key, the engine just makes the "brrrbrrrbrrrbrrr" noise but never starts. This kills my car's battery, so I hook up the jump starter once it's dead. Again, I have not collected any hard data, but I do have a general idea of the jump starter's capabilities through frequent use. If I had to give a figure, I would say that the jump starter (from a full charge) can turn the engine over all on its own for a total time of about a minute to a minute and a half before it gets to the first of three charge indicator lights. That is a minute and a half of constant "brrrbrrrbrrrbrrrbrrrbrrrbrrrbrrr". To those who know that doing that for such a long time is bad, this is not all at once, it is spaced out over the period I'm working on the car. In summary, you barely have to charge this thing. It can easily take a couple jump starts before you even have to THINK about charging it. I'm gonna recommend that you keep it fully charged, and charge it after every use. It is definitely unnecessary, but I'm gonna say it just for the sake of saying it. I don't want anybody to get mad because "this guy online told me it would last exactly 4 jump starts! Now it's not working and he's an idiot and I'm stranded!". And it puts out a very generous amount of power as well. Now, the fun little features that it has! It has a USB port that you can use for charging phones, electronic cigarettes, cameras, or even to power your USB desk back massager. I have never actually used it "for real", but I did test it out, and it works. I don't know how long it would be able to power something like a phone, but if you are stranded somewhere, you will DEFINITELY NOT have to worry about your cell phone dying. If it can jump a car multiple times, it can probably power a phone for a very long time. The built-in flashlight works pretty well. You can move it around and stuff, and it can actually really help at night if you need light for something. It's not the best flashlight in the world, because it's attached to a giant battery, but it gets the job done. It's more of an "oh crap I need light" thing than "I'm gonna be out in the garage tonight, I'd better bring the jump starter so I can see!". The charge level indicators are a little weird, but it really isn't a problem. You just press a button, and 1-3 LED's light up to show you how much it has left. I can see how someone would think it's a little inaccurate (you couldn't have put like a couple more lights on at least?), but it gets the job done. You really do not need an exact percentage display of the battery life, and this reduces the cost because it doesn't need an on-board computer to run a display. The last little thing it has is a mini air-compressor for filling your tires. The value of this depends on how you look at it. It is NOT good for filling up your tires. It will take forever. If I'm being honest, you're probably better off going to a gas station and paying a quarter. Even though it's kind of awful, it is still easily my favorite feature of this jump starter. If you happen to notice that a tire is low, you can just fill it up. If you're like me, then it's always in the car with you, and you never have to worry about finding a way to fill your tires. If a tire is leaking air, but is still somewhat drive-able, it will be a lifesaver. You can use this crappy little air compressor to limp your way over to a repair shop (or your house, if you're so inclined). It is a great thing to have in a desperate situation. Now onto the negative things...which there aren't many of. The switch for the air compressor is on the back. Under normal, not reckless use, it is 100% fine and there is nothing wrong with it. However, this thing sits in my trunk literally all the time. It is not fastened down at all, and there isn't really anything else to hold it even remotely in place. As a result, it ends up flying around a lot. Not often, but occasionally, the air compressor switch will flip to the "on" position from a bump, hard turn, panic braking, etc. I would not consider this one a flaw with the product, it is more of a user error. I know I don't take care of it, and it really is a result of my negligence. It is still worth noting though. To avoid this, you have some options. First of all, don't be like that random guy on the internet and let it fly around in your trunk. Second, if you do, place it so that the front (the side with the yellow buttons) is on the bottom. It is much less likely for something to move the switch, because it would have to flip over. If you manage to flip it over AND move the switch while driving like a sane human being, then I honestly think you deserve to have your air compressor switch flipped. Lastly, you could put some tape over the switch or something if you absolutely cannot avoid stowing it recklessly and driving like a maniac. Next issue, the size. For anybody who has a somewhat normal car, this is not really an issue. It may be able to power a car, but it is not the size of a car battery. It is much smaller. However, I have a two-seater convertible that only really has a trunk because it's hard to sell a car without a trunk. It takes up a large portion of my trunk. It is DEFINITELY worth it, but again, it is worth mentioning that with the other various tools I need in there for my ancient car, I pretty much end up with 1/3 of my trunk space available for trunk-stuff. And that's after playing trunk-tetris and getting everything to fit like a puzzle. So be warned, if you have something like a Miata, S2000, or another tiny two seater, space might be an issue if you keep it in the car all the time. If you don't have a hilariously small car, then ignore everything I just said. You may have to take it out if you're planning on hauling a metric crapload of stuff, but othewise it really shouldn't impede you. Basically, the solution to this negative is 1.) you could not keep it in your trunk (I don't suggest this one), or 2.) don't drive a roadster. If you already have a roadster, I'm sorry, but you're just gonna have to sell it. If you can't deal with the 2-seater's now barely-existent trunk, then you have to pick between this jump starter and the car. And you should pick the jump starter. Another negative thing I have is yet another thing that barely even counts as a negative. The flashlight is right above the thing you use to wrap one of the cords around. If you quickly try to wrap it up, you might get the cord caught on the flashlight just a tiny bit. Not really an issue, just something that I would change if I were to design a newer model. One negative thing that I'm seeing on some reviews of this and other jump starters is that the alligator clips break. I may have gotten lucky, or they may have gotten unlucky. Personally, I haven't had an issue with them, and I actually think they are built rather well. But it isn't worth glossing over, because if a lot of people complain about it, there may be some truth to it. Just know that even if some of them are bad, mine is proof that they are definitely not all like that. One final negative I have is the air compressor. It is an awesome thing that they included, and it could really come in handy, but it objectively is a bad thing to use for filling your tires. It is NOT supposed to be very good, after all, if you want a good air compressor, then you shouldn't be buying a battery jump starter. However, it is loud, I could hear it VERY clearly while driving, on the highway, with it in the trunk, that is a completely isolated compartment from the cabin. The first time the switch flipped after a bump, the loud noise actually freaked me out, because I heard this huge vibrating noise that would not stop, and I thought it was coming from the car. It is also pretty low-powered (again, it is attached to a car jump starter that only supplies 12 volts). It takes a long time to fill up air, and it obviously struggles getting the tire pressure up once it gets to (relatively) higher PSI. To summarize, this is an absolutely amazing device. It comes in handy in a lot of desperate situations. It can take tons of regular wear and tear as well as abuse (I would know, I'm not exactly nice to it). It manages to jump start even cars that are pretty difficult to start, and it can do it time and time again without recharging. Still, for safety's sake and just in case, I'd recommend keeping it charged. Just know that it is definitely capable of multiple jumps if 1.) you happen to need it multiple times in a row, and 2.) you don't feel like charging it every time you use it. It has some nice "extra" little features that you probably won't use a lot, but are definitely nice to have on the off chance you do need them. I keep this thing in my car literally all the time. It has not only saved my sorry butt more times than I can count, but it also allows me to use my car without worry in the winter when there's a less than 50% chance my car wouldn't normally work. If you are even THINKING about buying this, stop thinking, and give Stanley your money already. Even if you aren't thinking about it, even if you don't have a car, buy it.